Worlaby And Bonby Carrs,22.10.11.

Hawthorn Shield-bug.

An all day effort around the local patch today provided some great sightings over the 11 hours i spent there,with the latter part of the day seeing the Short-eared Owl circus beginning in earnest.I arrived on site at dawn,with no owls to be seen anywhere,but the Rough-leg was hunting around the decoy pond to the south east of the car park,giving good views,but this was the last time i saw it today and suspected it may have moved on.Notable movements of birds during the day included 595 Fieldfare,which the majority of which moved north,518 Pink-footed Geese,north and 250 South and a large count of 180 Mallard feeding on a stubble field on the way to Bonby Carrs.Raptors were well represented today with the afore mentioned RlB,but also seen were a juvenile Peregrine hunting the Fieldfare flocks down at the Ancholme and later a Merlin watched doing the same,the Merlin looking almost the same size as the Felfers.No Harrier were observed by myself at all today,which was strange,but good numbers of Kestrel and Common Buzzard were observed,with 13 of the former and 12 of the latter,the Kestrels including 6 birds hunting in the pasture at dusk along with the 9 Short-eared Owl.The Short-eared's put on a great display,even though the light was going,superb to see.Non bird sightings consisted of 4 Common Darter and a single Migrant Hawker,a Hawthorn Shield-bug which landed on my rucksack,7 Roe Deer and 4 Brown Hare.The Roe's included a group of 4 animals which had 2 young bucks in it and they put on an amusing performance as they pretended to joust with invisible antlers,great to watch.An excellent day was had again on this superb area,and a cracking sunset to end it.